Monday, October 18, 2010

Chicken Cacciatore: (The dishwasher gets a promotion) - Featured in Group Recipes

I am a little flattered that my loving wife would condescend and ask me to guest write in her blog about a meal I recently prepared for a family birthday gathering. Our Goddaughter Cheryl was celebrating her 29th and we decided to cook. So, with the podium temporarily transferred as such, I cannot resist commenting on food and how it has been central to our marriage and the merger of two cultures in one household. When we left the U.S. to come to Malaysia I had some understanding that there were large differences in the foods we ate and their preparation. I had visited here quite often before and Veronica had cooked Straits Chinese specialties for me in the U.S. However, I wasn't quite prepared for the rapid modernization of Malaysia and the embrace of international foods that was, and still is, going on here. The consequence of this array of foods and styles is that we have fed pretty "high on the hog" to use an American colloquialism. But I digress. Since Cheryl, and our guests that evening, were all Western food friendly, I set out to make an old recipe that is usually a crowd pleaser, with the advantage of essentially being a one pot meal and fairly simple to assemble. In fact, I approach this traditional dish with a crock pot slow cooker and with a couple of variations that yields something a bit different than the usual dish called Chicken Cacciatore. Cacciatore means "hunter" in Italian and I imagine that this dish was originally intended for preparing small game such as rabbit, grouse, or pidgeon. However, it has evolved into a chicken dish; one that is somewhat complex in flavors, using multiple herbs and spices, which are most likely a vestige of the desire to attenuate a gamey taste. In my recipe I have made two major changes to the traditional dish. First of all I use red wine instead of white, looking for the deeper dark color and flavor that it yields versus the bright red found in the usual preparation. Secondly, though chicken is the mainstay, I have added several pieces of sliced Italian sausage. Quite simply, the peppers and onions found in cacciatore, are exactly what is used in another great southern Italian dish; sausage & peppers. So I reasoned that two kinds of meat is more festive, and...it is. So if you try the recipe below, you should be plating a richer, heartier meal than you might expect. Let's get started:Chicken Cacciatore with a CatchWhat you will need:A large mixing bowlA large slow cooker or braising pot, (4 quart size is best)A 10-12 inch non-stick frying panA three to four quart pot for boiling pastaA large wooden spoon and a frying spatulaIngredients:1 500 gram pkg of penne pasta (macaroni would also work well)1.5kg (3 1/3 lbs.) - deboned, fresh chicken (I remove the skin, but if you wish a richer dish, by all means, leave it on)1 kg (2.2 lbs)Italian sausages (either the spicy version or regular depending on personal taste)3-4 tblspns grape seed or sunflower oil4 tblspns of regular press olive oil1/2 large lemon Balsamic vinegar1 tbspn finely chopped fresh oregano (increase to 2 slightly rounded tblspns if using dried)1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, finely minced (thank goodness for food processors)or3 rounded tbspns dry oregano3 tblspns minced fresh garlicsalt/pepper1 1/2 cups dry red wine (my choice was Chianti)1 cup chicken stock2 large onions, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick3 large bell peppers (I like to use three different colors)1 12 oz can of tomatoe paste1 12 oz can of black olivesDIRECTIONS:Rinse and pat dry the chicken, cut into large double forkful chunks. Note: I used skinned chicken breast meat.In a large bowl place 1/3 of your chicken pieces, some of the cooking oil, a couple of healthy dashes of balsamic vinegar, 1 tblspn of minced garlic, and a partial squeeze of the lemon half.Using your hands (it is a must, in my opinion, to take every opportunity to feel the food, just be sure to wash your hands very well or use food prep gloves) fold all the ingredients together gently until well distributed and the chicken is well coated. Repeat twice more. Place all of the prepared chicken in a plastic food bag and put in the refrigerator for one hour.Slice the Italian sausages in 50cm (2 inch) lengths. Place a bit of cooking oil in the frying pan (avoid olive oil for this step) and bring to a medium high heat. Fry the sausage pieces just long enough to obtain a slight caramelization (browning) on their skin. Drain and set aside.Slice bell pepper (capsicum) into strips, removing inner pulp & seeds. Set asideOil the bottom of the slow cooker with 2 tablspns of regular-press olive oil. Slice onions approximately ten cm (1/4 inch) thick, place evenly distributed in the bottom of your slow cooker.Place bell pepper strips on top of the onion. Spoon tomato paste in dollops over the pepper strips.Remove chicken from the fridge and fry on medium-high heat in 3 shifts and just long enough to obtain some caramelization to the chicken. Avoid burning the garlic. This should be done very fast, no more then one minute for each side of the chicken pieces. Drain chicken and place in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with chopped basil and oregano.Add sausages to the slow cooker on top of the chicken.Add 12 oz can of black olives (after draining and discarding the water) Sprinkle all with remaining olive oil. Pour red wine and chicken stock over all. Start your slow cooker on the high setting, and allow to reach a safe cooking heat (should take about 45 minutes). Return and set cooker on low. Go have a glass of the Chianti, and stretch your legs. This step is essential.Return to the hot pot in two hours and gently toss ingredients again, taking care to raise some of the liquid collected at the bottom and spoon over the mix.Check the pot again in another two hours. In our cooker the chicken was perfect and the sausages thoroughly cooked through. Look for the slightest tinge of pink in the sausage and for the chicken to be white all through, but juicy. By all means taste test at this time. Pour another glass of Chianti. Savor both. Salt and pepper to taste. Add red chili pepper at this time for some zing if you like. Taste again, and repeat as neccessary, but erring on the cautious side with these spices. All can be added by your guest at the table if they want more. When finished cooking, and tasting, turn off the slow cooker and let rest for one hour. Prepare the pasta to finish just before serving and just after the one hour rest time of the cacciatore. Serving may be in the normal style with platters of pasta and the cacciatore spooned over, or tossing the pasta with the cacciatore for a single dish presentation. Since we were serving buffet style we chose the latter.ENJOY!

One of the side dishes; cured and deep fried eggplant. If invited back I'll blog the recipe as everyone loves the results and we can never seem to make enough.

Thank you for your kind remarks Anna. I clicked to visit your blog and lo and behold, my favorite meal of all time appeared before my eyes. And though I am writing this very late in the evening after a very nice dinner prepared by 'Madame', my mouth watered involuntarily. Brava!Other readers should definitely check out Anna's blog. Aside from the mouth watering greeting, a little scrolling down yields even more delights.

This dish must be delicious...cooked by Quay Po's other half :) full of love and passion in cooking this chicken cacciatore . I am sure Quay Po is proud of you . From dishwasher to chef...mmmmm great promotion LOL! we are all waiting for your next post on the deep fried eggplant !

Quay Po : thanks for inviting Quay Lo to share with us his secret recipe. Hopefully I can gathers all the ingredients together to make this dish when my Piggies are back for sem break :)

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A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.

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I wish to thank those who have given me AWARDS. I feel really honored and thankful to you all. I have decided not to display the awards in my blog or pass it on because I feel it is impossible for me to pass it on to all the deserving blogs. They are so many and I do not feel comfortable leaving anyone out. I hope you appreciate how I feel. Once again Thanks a Million for thinking of me.